Little Miss Maia schools you: Lesson 1--What's in a Name?

Many of you may be wondering how Little Miss Maia got her name. Well, it all started when Mommy and Daddy got married and went on their honeymoon in Belize. While they were there, they visited some amazing Mayan ruins. They even went back the following year to see some more. So, the name "Maya" popped up in the baby name search. Mommy didn't want to be quite so referential to the Mayan civilization, so she looked up the alternative spelling "Maia" and found some interesting stuff.

According to wikipedia, "Maia in Greek mythology, was the eldest of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. She and her sisters, born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, are sometimes called mountain goddesses, oreads, for Simonides of Ceos sang of "mountain Maia" (Maia oureias) "of the lively black eyes". Maia was the oldest, most beautiful and shyest. Aeschylus repeatedly identified her with Gaia. She and her sisters were pursued by Orion, and turned into doves to preserve their safety. According to the Homeric hymn to Hermes, Zeus in the dead of night secretly begot Hermes upon Maia, who avoided the company of the gods, in a cave of Cyllene. After giving birth to the baby, Maia wrapped him in blankets and went to sleep. The rapidly-maturing infant Hermes crawled away to Thessaly, where by nightfall of his first day he stole some of Apollo's cattle and invented a lyre. Maia refused to believe Apollo when he claimed Hermes was the thief and Zeus then sided with Apollo. Finally, Apollo exchanged the cattle for the lyre. In Roman mythology, Maia was identified with Maia Maiestas (also called Fauna, Bona Dea (the 'Good Goddess') and Ops), a goddess who may be equivalent to an old Italic goddess of spring. The month of May was named for her; the first and fifteenth of May were sacred to her." (Count back 9 months from February, when Little Miss Maia was born, and you arrive in May! Just sayin'...)

Being that the constellations are linked to mythology, there is also a star named "Maia" in the constellation Taurus. Wikipedia informs us that "The Pleiades (star cluster), the Seven Sisters star cluster (one of two naked eye clusters that belong to Taurus, the other the Hyades (star cluster)), twinkle high in northern hemisphere autumn and winter skies, while shining closer to the horizon in the skies of southern hemisphere spring and summer. Maia, a proper name, is one of the seven mythical daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Shining at bright third magnitude (3.87) from a distance of 385 light years, she ranks fourth brightest after Alcyone, Atlas, and Electra. A blue-white class B (B8) giant star, Maia radiates 660 times more energy than does the Sun from a warm surface with a rather uncertain temperature of 12,600 kelvins. Its radius of 5½ times that of the Sun gives it true giant status.

An astrophotography website (you can see a picture of the Maia nebula here), says that "One of the most stunning deep-sky objects is the Pleiades open star cluster in Taurus, a celestial gem which has been cited by Homer (Illiad, 750 BC; Odyssey, 720 BC), Hesiod (700 BC), various ancient Greek astronomers as well as several references in the Bible."

So that's the story of Little Miss Maia's first name.

What about her middle name, Ellin? Well, that's easy. Little Miss Maia has 2 wonderful grandmas named Ellen and Linda. Ellen + Linda = Ellin!